I believe all digital scanners only require control channels only....anything more is just a waste of memory....and possibly making scanning even slower...

With Freescan, I have just always selected the local STARS "sites" and the particular VSP Division. I never really looked to see have many frequencies came down. Sure, I just you could get away with just programming the CC but then again you never know if you are getting everything.

Thanks for the replys. I just scanned until i found a frequency that works. Its 151.3625 p25 according to the display. It works but im getting salem, appomattix, and salem on the same channel. Is there a way just to get the salem dispatch only? I live near the white oak site.

Also, a quick step by step tutorial on how to program the stars vsp system on the 996t would be awesome if someone wants to help a brother out. I think i need to go back to college to fihure out how to work this thing. I am using freescan.
Thanks

You can skip college, there is a ton of old stuff on here back in the archives. Basically, you hear other areas because they have a mobile that area that is also affiliated with your closest tower so their traffic comes thru there. You can get rid of this by selecting what talk groups you allow. Look down through the database files, put in your local tower CC and alternate, and then select or remove the desired talk groups.

__________________
"Freedom has ceased to be a birthright; it has come to mean whatever we are still permitted to do." Joe Sobran

Au contraire. At least with the analog repeaters and especially simplex tac comms, you were guaranteed to hear them, as sometimes the digital audio is not decoded reliably by any of these scanners. Although I was very pleasantly surprised the other day when I ran up to Tyson's Corner that for the first time I heard the STARS Fairfax talkgroups loud and very clear.

I kind of miss hearing about a distant incident that generated a flurry of radio traffic, particularly when I was escaping the great blizzard of 2009.

I haven't decided whether I will return south to Florida via the I-95 corridor or the Southern Railway route through the hills, but either way I will be giving this scanner a good workout across numerous sites so it should be interesting to see how it performs.

I'll leave in the old high band system since it's easier just to leave it even if I don't need it. Thanks guys.

And doesn't it just figure: I refarmed the many, many sites across a few Quick Keys to trim down the work that the scanner must do in any particular area on the STARS system. When I tested it at my Dad's house on the high band 1/4-wave antenna up on the tower it can't hear any sites. I used to hear the old conventional 159.000 alligator no problem here in this r.f. Bermuda Triangle. Oh well.

I can drive up the hill to Glebe Road and stuff comes booming in. This is the place where radio waves come to die. :-(

Now wait just a minute! I turned on my ancient Icom 3220 and heard activity on 159.000, namely "1474 on duty Fairfax" with the proper PL tone and the characteristic de-key beep at the end. I don't know why I didn't hear that mobile the other day, but sure enough it's still on the air.

I also saw the receive activity lamp on 159.135, but it was data that sounded like digitized voice.

The other benefit of the conventional repeaters was that you could scan the input freqs and hear when units were close by. That was...useful information.

On a related note, is it a safe assumption that ALL of the old VHF frequencies are no longer used anywhere in the state?

I'm visiting family in Northern Virginia and touching up my STARS programming in my 996XT and figure I might as well revisit the conventional freqs.

If VSP no longer uses even the 154.665 tactical frequency, then I might as well delete that whole conventional system out of the scanner. I'm gonna miss it, though. :-(

Thanks.

STARS is another example of a radio system working 100% as designed on paper but not in reality. As with most new radio systems there is not 100% seamless coverage initially..STARS was no different.. Currently in several VSP divisions there are STARS "shadow" T/R areas. One location example is in Amelia Co. SW to the Rt. 460 area. Hence the use of Div 3 analog "gap fill" repeater operations until the technical issues are resolved. Div 4 with the more mountainous terrains has the same type of T/R issues. I believe Div 7 also has similar issues in its coverage areas. Believe it or not there is one or more T/R "shadow area" on I64 hence the conversion of the Waverly Div5 PTP relay site to a STARS T/R site in order to rectify that problem. Finally STARS VSP radio Zones 15 and 16 selections are the old 7 VSP Division analog ops, tac and surveillance frequencies. When the technical issues are resolved then probably the analog transmissions will cease.

When VSP was vhf analog I could receive Chesapeake, Culpeper, Appomattox and occasionally Fairfax repeater ops. at my base station setup. Analog operation had its problems but I miss those distant analog ground wave repeater coverages.